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Airport Eats Go High Tech with iPads

Hungry but leery to leave the gate to seek out foodstuffs in the terminal? Even if you have plenty of time to dine before takeoff, airport food and beverage operator OTG is relying on technology to take the stress out of fueling up before flying out. The company will spend over $10 million to deploy over 7,000 new iPads at three international airports in order to make airport dining easier on travelers.

LaGuardia Airport's Terminal D has already been the recipient of over 300 iPads, with 2,000 more to come in Terminals C and D. Minneapolis-St. Paul and Toronto Pearson International Airport will also receive 2,500 each. The project will be completed within the next 18 months.

What this means: travelers can order food from an assortment of quality restaurants—perhaps an assortment of bruschetta from the Italian Bar Brace, a pizza from Crust or a steak frites from Bisoux brasserie at LaGuardia—and have it delivered within 15 minutes right to the gate. The iPads are used to order within the restaurants, also, cutting down on service delays and waiting times.

In addition to allowing easy placement of orders, the iPads give travelers free internet usage and the availability to securely log on to Facebook, Twitter, and personal email while dining. Travelers can also stay up-to-date on flight status, catch up on the news with pre-loaded apps like USA Today, or entertain themselves with games like Hangman.

OTG has an award-winning history of upgrading restaurant options at airports, including JFK's Terminal 5. Their latest project, LaGuardia's terminals C and D, brought in big-name culinary consultants like Jason Denton 'inoteca for Bar Brace; Andrew Carmellini of the Dutch for Victory Grill; Michael Lomonaco of Porter House for Prime; Co's Jim Lahey for Crust; and Minetta Tavern's Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson for Bisoux.